Before automation, consumers generally formed patties of food product by hand. However demand (e.g., the fast-food industry) for high-speed and high-volume production of food products led to the development of automated machines configured to provide molded food product. Generally, such machines mold the food product under pressure into patties of various shapes and sizes. A typical application for food product molding machines is in the production of hamburger patties. Yet, the type of food product (e.g., vegetables, meat, fish, etc.) and shape (e.g., rods, patties, etc.) can vary. The molded food products are distributed to restaurants, grocery stores, etc. The demand for high volume, high-speed food product molding machinery continues to grow.
However, prior art food product molding machines have several drawbacks. For example, buyers want more capacity than is available from known food product molding machinery. Furthermore, controlling and balancing the increased flow of food product through known food product molding machines is difficult while maintaining the quality of the molded food product.
As can be seen, the present state of the art of manifolds and feed systems incorporated into food product molding machines has definite shortcomings.
Known food product molding machines include tube or cylindrical valves to control the pressure and flow rate of food product forced by the pump assemblies into the cavities of the mold plates. These known tube or cylindrical valves are inefficient and limit the capacity of food product that can be processed through the machine.
The extension and retraction of pump assemblies and mold plate assemblies in the molding machine create exhaust air and excess food product that is difficult to return to the food supply. Typically, this exhaust air can escape like a “burp” from the machine, causing a splatter of food product that can escape the confines of the machine.